Sin Fever
by Carroway
Summary: Dark Ace has come to far for things to start falling apart now. He'll fight till his eyes bleed and his flesh rots. He was born a warrior. He lived as a warrior. He will die as a warrior. Warnings are in beginning of each chapter.
1. When You Play the Devil's Game

So I've seen a few headcanons about Dark Ace's eyes having turned red due to an over-exposure to firebolt crystals, as well as he had a crippling shoulder injury at some point and that's why the armour on his left arm looks some what brace like, or as though it has some sort of stabilizing effect. And I like it, so I'm going to run with it. As well as a few of my own ideas.

This is going to start out mainly as short chapters and long chapters with random little ditties here and there, and I may or may not develop a more complex plot later on, but for now it will be an episodic type thing.

I like torturing my favorite character so I'll let you know the do.

 **Rating-T** for: Blood, gore, violence, profuse swearing, slash, femslash, dubious relationship between underage ruler and her faithful servant, medical horror, general horror, trauma, orphans, self-harm, eating disorders, ect. Basically be ready for anything and everything **EXCEPT** sexual content. Kissing will be about as far as it goes, otherwise sexual activities will only be implied ;3

(Sorry I don't do smut)

Time frame begins just after the pilot:Age of Heroes and will continue through the first season, then who the hell knows where it will go from there if I don't forget about it.

Enjoy, leave comments, yadda yadda .

 _Bested by a group of fucking children!_

The mere thought of it made his already aching body pulsate with rage and his fists clench with the need to choke the life out of something. But really, who's fault was it, if not his own?

He knew he should have killed that brat when he had the chance - _but noooo-_ he had to let his damn ego get in the way, to cloud his judgment and to let the boy live to have another chance at proving himself a 'true sky knight'. Ironic really, seeing as the little shit's father had been the one to tell him many times that his ego would be the death of him. Dark Ace would have huffed out a sarcastic laugh if there weren't a pile of metal support beams and other debris pinning him to what was left the floor. Just another thing to make his anger flare and head ache. Not only was their plan foiled, but to add insult to injury, those **children** had destroyed a significant chunk of the upper citadel.

 _And I was the idiot who didn't get the hell out when the Storm Engine began to tear everything apart. What a fine mess this is. But it's not going to fix itself..._

Bringing his mind back to the current predicament, Dark Ace closed his eyes and focused his mind, trying to pin point any injuries. His left shoulder felt like it was on fire, which was nothing new, but he could feel the blood running down the side of his arm where it felt like his armour had taken more of an impact than it was made for and bent, jamming itself into his skin. The same could be said for his chest plate, the point of which he could feel starting to dig further and further into the soft skin just below his collar bones. One wrong move and it could very well be his end. _Ha!_ He could only imagine the indignant look on his master's face when she found out he had died from something as trivial as a small puncture in just the right...Cyclonis!

 _Where is she? Was she crushed? No, I was by her side in time..._

Just as the thought ran across his mind he heard shifting down near his feet before the beam which lay atop him began to glow with red crystal energy and was lifted, revealing the dark childlike form of Cyclonia's ruler.

Sitting up and being mindful of his shoulder - _and_ _by the gods how fucking hard did he hit his head?,_ vibrant red eyes stared at the ground before glancing up to meet flippant purple.

"Master.." he said carefully, somewhat confused by her calm demeanor after what had just taken place.

The teen waved her hand dismissively, "You win some you lose some..." she replied, turning to look at the wreckage of her throne room as he stood to brush dust and rocks off his uniform. She smirked.

"Apparently the same goes for you too Dark Ace."

The talon commander scowled to himself, silently fuming that he was now in such a category. He would not be making the same mistake next time that was for sure!

Looking around as Cyclonis walked to the edge of the platform, he spat out the wad of blood that had been collecting in his throat for the past few minutes and trained his gaze back on his master.

"Don't worry. Atmos is going to learn I have much more in store for it..." Her gaze flickered to him as an evil look twisted her pale face. "And as for the _Storm Hawks,_ **they'll pay for what they've done!"**

The dual edge in her voice unnerved him a bit but he chose not to comment on it for the time being. Dark Ace watched her carefully as she continued to stare into the dark skies of Cyclonia, her fists clenched and small body almost shaking with suppressed rage.

Slowly walking up behind the young ruler, he put his hand on her shoulder briefly before letting it drop back to his side as his vision began to tunnel and his head felt like it was being stuffed with burning cotton.

 _This is not the time._

"I'll see to it that they do."

Cyclonis nodded then turned and kneeled at the base of the once Storm Engine, pulling her cloak out of the rubble and shaking it off before placing it on her shoulders and looking back at her champion with blank eyes.

"I suppose you should retrieve Ravess and Snipe from the Wastelands. We have quite a bit of rebuilding to do."

The Dark Ace nodded and quickly made his way out of the throne room and into the hallway before immediately leaning against the wall, trying to blink away the black spots in his vision. He really needed to get his shit together. Venturing into the Wastelands for any reason was never something he enjoyed, it made him tense and edgy; it made his heart race and mind freeze. It would do more harm than good to go there now unless he pulled himself together.

To be perfectly honest, if Cyclonis hadn't ordered him to fetch the pair, he had half a mind to let Ravess and Snipe bake for a few hours. But alas, he knew Cyclonis wouldn't be happy if one of them managed to get eaten by a lava worm or some other such nonsense. So now he was tasked with retrieving her wayward minions. Like some sort of babysitter.

 _Or dog catcher._

 _Well? Get going!_

With an exasperated sigh, Dark Ace pushed himself off the wall and sharp jolt of pain brought his attention to his left arm where- sure enough, the armor had bent itself into a particularly nasty point and had sliced its way into his upper bicep. Weighing his options for a moment he figured it would be better to pull it out now than to leave it to work its way deeper into his arm.

Wrapping his fingers around the curve of the metal just above the wound, he gave a sharp tug and the entire piece broke free of the rest and dislodged itself from his arm, along with a nice spurt of blood that ran down his arm to drip off his elbow and onto the metal floor.

Breathing through the pain he waited a few momentswhile watching his blood flow in a slow but steady stream into the growing puddle on the floor before running his fingers through his hair and turning on his heal, making his way towards the hangar bay.


	2. You Can't Raise Hell With A Saint

Ravess could _almost_ say she was actually happy to see the Dark Ace when he appeared through the thick cloud like fog that hovered a few clicks above the 'surface' of the Wastelands leading a handful of other Talons.

Almost.

Because she would be rotting in her grave before she was ever glad to be anywhere near the man. He was the walking equivalent of a storm cloud, an angry thunderhead that produced arrogance and cockiness instead of rain. Or a _psychotic_ _fucking asshole_ as Snipe so nicely put it, although she could hardly disagree. After knowing the champion of Cyclonia for a little over six years she could very well say she had seen him do some crazy, daring, and down right suicidal things before. If she didn't know better she'd call him an attention whore, but contrary to popular belief he preferred to blend into the background more often than not.

But as much as she disliked him he was also the only person in Clyclonia she could have an intelligent conversation with, or who was as sarcastic and as witty as herself.

"It's about time!" She yelled as Dark Ace landed the standard issue Switchblade a few feet from her and directly in front of Snipe, causing him to flail and fall off the rock he had been sitting on.

"Goddamnit! You're such a dick!" Her brother yelled, jumping up and getting even angrier when Dark Ace just started laughing. Snipe growled and muttered something obscene under his breath before stalking over to one of the other Talons and commandeering his ride.

The pinkette rolled her eyes then walked over to Dark Ace as he waived her over.

"Get on," he said with out even looking at her. "We're doubling up."

"Oh is that so? And just what makes you think I'm riding with you?" She replied hotly.

He huffed and actually looked at her, eyebrows pinched together in annoyance. "Because I know how much you love me and I figured you wouldn't want to pass up this opportunity?"

The archer didn't respond immediately. Although her mind subconsciously registered his mocking tone the majority of her attention was focused on the fact that he was covered in blood. His left arm was still dripping sluggishly, there was a sizable patch of it on his chest, which she now noticed was devoid of his typical armor. Smears of blackish red were streaked on his sides and upper thighs.

 _Just what the hell happened in Cyclonia?_

Just as she was looking up at the smear of crimson running across his temple into his onyx hair, her eyes met his and she was thrown at how they seemed to **glow** just as luminous as the fire and magma surrounding them. Almost like the light that most crystals gave off.

 _That's new_ she thought as she continued to stare at him.

Ravess knew she had been taking too long to reply when she saw him arch a brow.

"Hell no, are you concussed?" She fired off after breaking away from his freakish gaze and glaring just to the right of his head. It annoyed him to no end when she did it, which was often. Barking out a laugh he revved the bike and looked back out over the wastelands. "Don't know yet, but if you want out of here then you have five seconds to get moving."

The woman took a breath before releasing it slowly, throwing her leg over the Switchblade and leaning as far away from Dark Ace as possible, all the while wishing she could beat his face in with something sharp and heavy. "Happy now? I'd like to leave."

He didn't give any inclination that he'd heard a word she'd just said and took off towards Cyclonia.

The moment the three commanders got back to their shared quarters Dark Ace and Snipe went straight for the stash of alcohol and after a few seconds thought Ravess figured she'd indulge as well. It had been quite a.. hectic day after all.

The archer sat at the table calmly sipping her wine, watching Snipe root through their liquor cabinet looking for something to take shots of, finally coming up with a cheep bottle of whiskey.

Dark Ace snorted and pushed it aside, pulling out a bottle of expensive - _and mine!-_ vodka. Snipe smirked and poured himself a shot of the whiskey, all while eyeballing the smaller man. "What's the matter, can't handle a man's drink?"

Dark Ace gave him a look that Ravess couldn't quite decipher before unscrewing the cap and taking a healthy swig with out so much as blinking then said, "Dark liquor makes me violent."

Rolling his eyes, her brother sat at the table opposite of her and they all drank in silence for a few minutes.

It was deathly quiet in the room, only the sounds of liquid sloshing around inside bottles or glasses was heard and Ravess was beginning to doze off right here, head resting in the palm of her hand.

 _Drip...drip..drip..._

Then new sound caught her attention and she briefly wondered what the hell it was but then decided she was too tired to really care.

 _Drip... drip...dr_ -"Fuck!"

She heard movement and the dripping increased and gained a metallic ping. Opening her eyes she saw Dark Ace leaning over the sink and blood pouring out of his nose. Like, a lot. Even Snipe looked mildly alarmed. Sitting up straight she watched him carefully, her mind wandering back to the quip she had made about him having a concussion and then glancing at the vodka bottle on the counter which was a bout a fifth less full than when she'd last looked at it.

"Don't kneel over in the kitchen. I mean it." He gave her the finger and turned the faucet on, starting to wash blood out of the sink.

"T'is is gettin' really annoying." He muttered sticking his face under the tap and getting water everywhere.

"It's happened before?" Ravess asked without really thinking about it. Why should she care?

"Nosey arn't ya?" Snipe said, taking another shot. She glared at him and kicked him under the table. He was either too drunk to notice or care because all he did was shrug. When she looked back at Dark Ace he was peeling off his wet and blood stained shirt and an odd thought struck her. She'd known him, trained with him, hell, she even lived with him the whole time she'd been in Cyclonia which would be seven years next month and she'd never seen him without a shirt on. Which was rather unfair now that she thought about it because she was sure he'd seen her almost completely naked within the first two years of her living here, and Snipe felt the need to parade around naked as the day he was born when the mood struck him. But Dark Ace? The fearless aerial dog fighter. The terror of the skies. She'd never seen him in anything but his uniform, and always fully dressed, armor and all.

Snipe wolf whistled and laughed. "I don't have any singles but thanks for the show." The only reply he got was another middle finger which seemed to be Dark Ace's new favorite gesture.

Taking another sip of her wine she observed what was in front of her with a critical eye.

The first thing she noticed was the tattoos on his left arm. The Cyclonian emblem on his bicep, which tapered off into some sort of edgy pattern that morphed into a sort of reaper on his inner arm just above the bend of his elbow as well as a few random symbols she didn't know the meaning of and some sort of script wrapping around his wrist.

The second thing she noticed was the massive scar on his left shoulder. It started on the back of his shoulder and wrapped all the way around to the front, over his collar bone an ending a few inches below it. She had known about the injury to his shoulder, but she hadn't known the damage had been so extensive. Just looking at it made her bones ache.

The last thing she noticed was something that, now, she felt was more than obvious. Watching him lean against the counter with his dirty shirt pressed over his still bleeding nose, it really struck her just how thin he was. She had always just figured he was lean, their lifestyle didn't really lend itself to being anything other than as fit as possible, but he was past that. He had muscle and that was basically it. Glancing down to his pants that were sliding down a bit she saw hipbones protruding sharpy under his tan skin, leading up to a stomach that was running a fine line between flat and concave. From there she followed the curve of his rib cage, sticking out just enough for her to count the first few ribs, From there, an almost delicate looking collarbone was fully displayed, leading up a slender neck to an angular face and... _Those fucking eyes_ she thought, catching his gaze again as he turned around after dropping his shirt in the sink.

"See something you like?" He almost purred, walking over to the table and leaning over it to get in her face. Pitch black hair fell over his eyes and brushed softly against her own fuchsia locks and Ravess looked him dead in the eye, holding his gaze.

"No."

One word was all it took. The older man broke eye contact first and laughed, drunkenly, then sat down between her and Snipe. "Then stop staring, it's annoying."

Twirling the last but of liquid in her glass Ravess shrugged. Without a word she got up from the table and walked into her room, shutting the door and cutting off the light. She needed her rest. After all she was going to be quite busy tomorrow.


End file.
